William Martin and Mary O'Daniel Taunton

June 26, 2017

Our Grandmother Taunton had serious heart problems and had been quite ill in late Spring 1952. Our family had been staying with her and Granddaddy at night. Finally on June 9 she was better, and I (soon too be 13 years old) was to stay with them that night. Aunt Maggie told me to leave the porch light on if I wanted her to come after work on the 2nd mill shift and stay with us. I left the light on. The next morning Grandmother came in with a brisk step to wake me up. I dressed and went into the kitchen to tell her I was going home. She was washing her hands at the sink. Granddaddy had gone outside to empty the coffee grounds in her flower pots. She moved to the flour sack towel hanging on the door and began rubbing the back of her hand repetitiously. I knew something was wrong, ran over, and put my arm around her. She sagged against me, and I screamed for Aunt Maggie. I had not heard her come in, but I knew she was there! Grandmother Taunton died on Friday, June 13, from a stroke. 

Roma Lee Taunton

Sometime around the mid 1940's, my cousin Sellers, my Uncle Forrest Hall's oldest son, and Bobby Orr were walking along the old dirt Red Hill Road just about where it used to curve in front of Refuge Church before the new intersection was built with Martin Dam Road.

It was still a dirt road at the time but it wouldn't be much longer. There was a wooded area on the east side of the road, across from the church. On the opposite side of the road, Mr. Milton Griffith had a home that still stands today, about where Martin Dam Road joins Red Hill Road. .

Mr. Milton had a really nice garden going that year, with a really great crop of pole beans, ready for the picking, and hanging in abundance on the elaborate vine runner racks he had constructed for them. Bobby notices that hornets have built a really huge, oval shaped, gray paper mache nest, on a low hanging limb of a hickory tree in the wooded area across the road from the church and Mr. Milton's garden.

Bobby tells Sellers that there is no way he can throw a rock so accurately as to knock that nest off the limb with a single throw. So Sellers decides to take up the challenge and begins to search for just the right rock, and in Red Hill there were plenty of rocks to choose from. Bobby, realizing that Sellers just might luck up and hit the thing on his first throw, begins to put some distance between himself and Sellers.

And sure enough, the first rock finds its mark, thunk, right into the top area of the nest, penetrating right through the nest and severing its attachment to the tree limb. Bobby is now running to put more distance between himself and Sellers, because he knows what is about to happen.

The hornets come pouring out of the nest and immediately spot their antagonist. And Sellers is just about to pick up on what is coming and begins his retreat, but too late. The hornets descend upon him with a vengeance.

He is running toward Mr. Milton's garden and has just gotten to the edge of it, near the pole beans, when the hornets begin exacting retribution on him.

If you have ever suffered a hornet sting, you know that one can ruin your day. Several are a disaster! Sellers hits the ground of the garden right at the beginning of the pole bean row. He begins rolling through the pole beans, destroying the bean racks, and screaming in agony.

When the hornets finally fly away from Sellers, Mr. Milton's pole bean crop and the poles are on the ground, and Sellers face and arms are swelling in a dozen places.

Bobby is doubled over in laughter and Mr. Milton thinks Sellers may have had some kind of seizure or an epileptic fit before he realizes what has happened. You learned real soon not to ever take a dare from Bobby Orr.

Raymond Eugene Hall, October 26, 2017